Two Taiwanese crew members onboard a Keelung-registered fishing vessel were questioned by Japanese authorities after their boat was intercepted for allegedly operating in Japanese waters yesterday morning, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said.
The Japanese authorities agreed, after negotiations, to release the detained ship and crew after they paid a fine of about ¥6 million (US$37,320).
The boat, the Fu Yang No. 266 (福洋266號), and the crew returned to Taiwan last night, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Photo copied by Lin Chia-tung, Taipei Times
The vessel was intercepted by a Japanese Fisheries Agency vessel while it was operating about 288 nautical miles (533km) northeast of Pengjia Islet (彭佳嶼) at about 1am yesterday, the CGA said in a news release.
Pengjia Islet is just over 30 nautical miles north of Keelung and 76 nautical miles west of the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) — known as the Senkakus in Japan — in the East China Sea.
Japanese fishery personnel boarded the vessel for inspection and questioned two of its Taiwanese crew members, including the boat’s captain, the CGA said.
The boat also carried six Indonesian fishery workers, it added.
The CGA said it immediately dispatched a Nantou-class patrol vessel to the scene when it received a report at 6:50am about the incident.
After checking with Japanese authorities, the CGA said the vessel’s crew is suspected of illegally entering the waters near Japan’s Amami Oshima to fish.
The CGA said it had been in contact with Japanese authorities to gain a better understanding of the situation, and to assist the boat’s owner, Tsai Chia-wei (蔡家緯), and crew in dealing with the matter.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also contacted the Japanese authorities to express its concern and offer assistance.
It was not the first instance this year of Japan detaining a Taiwanese fishing boat.
On May 11, a ship piloted by an Indonesian national crashed into a reef as the pilot was dozing on duty, according to a report about the incident.
While Japan scrambled ships and rescued all seven crew members on board, the captain and Indonesian pilot were detained for damaging coral reefs.
The two men were released after paying a fine of ¥200,000, and all crew members were returned to Taiwan 13 days after the incident.
Additional reporting by Lu Hsien-hsiu and Chiu Chun-fu
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central